Speed comes at a price - Bob Colwell, former chief architect at Intel
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HTC tries to ban Apple's Iphone and Ipad by claiming patent infringement
TAIWANESE SMARTPHONE MAKER HTC has continued its tit-for-tat patent war against Apple by claiming that the designer of shiny toys is infringing three of its patents.
HTC's ongoing dispute with Apple looks set to widen as HTC claims that Apple is infringing three patents by flogging Macintosh computers, Iphones, Ipads and Iphones. HTC filed the lawsuit against Apple in US District Court in Delaware and asked for the court to ban the import and sale of the offending products in the US, essentially meaning that Apple Stores would be stripped bare.
Of course it is highly unlikely that HTC will get all it has demanded, including compensatory damages and treble damages for willful infringement. What is far more likely is that HTC's ploy is to try to weaken Apple's negotiating stance on the patents it alleges HTC is infringing with its products.
The smartphone and tablet markets are currently in the midst of a patent war, with Apple, Google, HTC, Microsoft, Motorola, Oracle and Samsung all battling to knock seven bells out of each other in the courts rather than on the store shelves. Google's decision to shell out $12.5bn for Motorola Mobility is thought by many to be a play by Google to get its hands on Motorola's extensive patent portfolio rather than to get into the handset business.
Given the value of smartphone and tablet markets, we don't expect HTC's latest legal salvo to be much more than posturing for a deal. µ
Tags: Apple
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Although technology patents are something that I think are needed to protect large investements in R&D, the current system is favouring the huge older companies and killing the smaller new and innovative ones.
Maybe it should be so that patents could not be sold on and on, but instead they would lapse once their holder e.g. goes bankrupt. It seems corrupt that big companies spend several billion dollars to acquire patents only to kill competition and to gain the edge on blackmailing "license fees" on something they have not invented themselves.
Or do I recognize that a war fought on corrupt foundations, as this one is, will corrupt all its players, turning the ostensibly-good ones into bad, and generally sink everyone into a common cesspit of evil?
they did guve us WebKit (which led to ao, Chrome) even though it Webkit itself was based on Konquerer. And they gave all us linux users CUPS, which is quite something.
Not that any of that excuses their current patent trolling, but saying nothing worthwhile ever originated from apple, I cant agree with that.
Apple didn't invent USB ... they were pushing FireWire and were wanting excessive royalties and as a result Intel and others came up with USB as a cheaper (to license) alternative to force Apples hand.
Not a hint of that to be found. Example:
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/When_and_who_invented_Usb
"USB was created by a core group of companies that consisted of Compaq, Digital, IBM, Intel, Northern Telecom, and Microsoft. Intel produced the UHCI host controller and open software stack; Microsoft produced a USB software stack for Windows and co-authored the OHCI host controller specification with National Semiconductor and Compaq; Philips produced early USB-Audio; and TI produced the most widely used hub chips."
Nothing worthwhile has EVER been original with Apple. They've actually had to abandon all their own ideas.
Apple is hitting low by trying to prevent the sales of competitive products.
Like Microsoft or Google that have gotten so big that everyone is after them, it seems that Apple will get it too.
Unfortunately Apple does does foster :
a. Creativity - limited line of products
b. innovative development - limited secret platforms
c. standards - Aside from USB, nothing incredible has come from Apple